turbulent mind
by Phyr
Summary: What if things arn't always what they seem? A Street Sharks fic. Some bad words, refrencse to mental insanity via Drugs and other bad things.
1. Turbulent mind

**Road Rage**

What happens when someone looses it? Do they go insane because something drives them over the edge? Something so simple as no one listening to them? Hearing them? Trusting them? Maybe it happens because everyone thinks thier insane. Maybe it's the "hero's" that try to "save" the insane one that drives them over the edge.

Now…

What if this person was a street shark? What happens when a rage so dangerous, so lethal, so secret is forced to the surface and shoved in the face of ones family?

Secrets of a past forgotten.

Secrets of a  time unwanted.

Secrets of another life..

And what if the life wasn't your own? Would you do the 'sane' thing and forget it, or… 

Or would you search out the person? Even if you knew it was futile to begin with. And maybe a bit insane?

But that's the way of sanity, isn't it?  You are constantly searching for something or someone. Only to loose them in the end. Be it by love, lies, hate, regression…

What would you tell your family?

Would you?

What would they tell you?

If they were the same?

Nothing is more sacred than family and friends. To betray one is a crime not to be forgotten, by choice or other wise.

Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll

If only.


	2. the Start

CH1

"the Start"

squeeksqueek-squeek- squeeksqueek-squeek

And…

taptap-tap-taptap-tap

Thus together it sounded more like:

tapektapek-tapek-tapektapek-tapek

Which leads Jabs to yelling for someone to knock the hamster off it's weel and for someone else to smack Streeks. a typical day in the life…

"What miss your guppy-lover at night?" quoth the Streek never more.

"Hey at least I have one, twinkle fins." came the Jab. And thus ensued another semi-short sibling slap fest.

"You know, (que pillow at Streek's) I think we should bane saying things like Jawsome…" started Ripster as he dodged a stuffed Pikachu. Where did they get that anyhow?

"Don't forget Shark-Attack!" this from Slamu who as currently balancing a plate of burgers on his nose.

"Twinkle fins…" this from the hand, or rather the Streeks that was burred under a LOT of pillows.

"Guppy lover?" or at least that's what it sounded like, Jabs kinda had a stuffed Pikachu parts in his mouth. So much for the electric mouse.

"Don't forget Shark-arific." add's Benz who just randomly shows up. Much like the way he randomly finds super powered things in the trash. Don't ask. He looks towards Ripster "but why?"

"Because at this rate that's the only other thing we'll be known for. And I highly dought we could-, Would like being made fun of the way we make fun of Emeril's 'Bam!' note how Lena refuses to watch his show with us now." 

"Ok, so it's agreed? No more fish related catch phrases. This includes puns." Benz says looking over his ever-present sunglasses.

"Agreed!" can the unanimous vote. Then laughter, lot's of laughter. What happened to the laughter? When was this? Last week, moth, year? Longer? What happened…?

Was it the drugs? Instead of just easing the pain, did they have another side affect? Memory loss? _Specific_ memory loss? Why can't we remember them? Her? She cooked tons of things we never dreamed of trying. Yet Slamu remembers, remembers being shown how. But not by who.

"So Slams's, what's on the menu for tonight?"

"Chicken-Chattaroy with Alfrado pasta on the side."

"And caramel pairs with peppermint ice cream?" Jabs asks with a pleading look.

"Yup" Jab does a little 'score' dance. Don't ask.

"From school I think…"

"Man, I don't remember you being able to cook like this back in school. In fact, didn't you flunk out of coking class?" Moby

"I know I was taught but-"

"Just not by who?"

"Yeah…"

"This has been happening  a bit, first the blue screen of death, then the extra mortercycle parts. What next? Coto and Poto from Beastmaster?"

"Maybe… I think I stepped on a squeaky toy last week."

"But now the hard question, was it the same person?"

"I don't think so… something bout ice and palms… never mind.  I don't think it was the same person. What do you think?"

"No, defiantly not the same person."

"Why? Not that I don't agree, but how do we know this?"

"While we're on the topic, does anyone remember a girl obsessed with foxes?"

"Dude I think you've seen to many Disney flicks."

"Something to do with pink maybe?"

"You both probably saw her at a rave."

"Hmph"

"Wow talk about MIB experience. Speaking of which did any one see the sequel? I heard it was good."

I guess the _system_ wasn't expecting anything like this. All the same players, but all of them switching teams & sides. With or with out realizing it.

Assassins, terrorist hunters, Hybrids, genetically engendered solders fighting someone's sick privet war. People vanishing with out a trace, then reappearing to ask for help.

But when was that? And who? Too many questions with simple or no answers.

Like for instance, why us?

Every one that has been affected by this seem to be from the FSH district. Maybe I should start there… no, that lead to a dead end. Maybe there's a clue to the past? In the past?

This all started 5 years ago… I had just gotten int- no, out of High School. But then what? Paradime kidnapped us? Forced us into this life? What happened at the mall? and here does that girl fit into this? Maybe… no, I should go thru the schools records again. 

What to search for? 

Keywords: party, senior, water, rape, penpa-… rape? Where did that come from? Something to do with an attack?

Maybe. But maybe I'm insane.

"Let's see here. Jabs has a simple broken leg, in three places. His 'nurse' Mobey has a broken arm because he tried to catch his falling love. Then Streex, well… he was getting his ass handed to him from that start. Next would be Slamu and Rox. They both have mild concussions and broken jaws. Why? Because their heads were slammed together. And you, Ripster, tried to catch a double barreled sawed off shotgun round with your chest. Now... You tell me why you hurt." Lena stats as she finishes pushing Rip 'gently' back down into his bed.

"But…"

"NO. Streex is on EQ and the others are playing Smash Bros Melee. Find something to do."

"This isn't fair. I'm fine."

"You almost died! Think about that. Your brothers could have lost you."  She says as she leaves.

"Dude, you ok?"

"No, I feel like I'm missing something… something important."

"You missed a lot, and rightly so. What ever that psycho did to you had you out the longest. not that the hole thru the chest didn't help… but still,  what could you possibly miss?"

"The person that shot me. And why."

"Dude, that guy was a psycho, he had helpers all around. A girl shot you. We all saw her do it. Odd reaction, but nonetheless she tried to kill you. Why would you want to find her?"

"I don't know, maybe see why she shot me, and why she's working with a known rapist."

"Was."

"Huh…?"

"The guy, the rapist, was found dead earlier. Streex seemed almost relived."

"How did he die?"

"Not sure, cops found a cement block on their steps. The block had a sticker on it that said 'hello my name is' something or another… don't remember. Strange… anyhow, they did a DNA test on it and found the guys ashes mixed in it. Some one really didn't want to chance him coming back."

There! Was that the first key? That guy never existed. I've searched for hours and never found any record of any rapist in Fission City. Was it a hoax? A dammed painful one if it was. Maybe a cover up? That sounds about right… but what did it cover up? The only one…

The only one I know of is the Hybrid I almost murdered.

"Rip! Don't!" Streex says into the headset. She turns, looks at me, or is it past?

***BANG***

"SHE'S ONE OF US!" Streex's yells in the headset, but by then it was to late.

It caught her high on the chest, near the hart. She could have survived the shot easy. Had it not been from a high powered gun, one that could nock even Mantaman from the air. She had hovered, and looked right at me. Just as I pulled the trigger. Her eyes were wide with shock. She could have passed for human, had it not been for the fine like thing. She was part manta ray. But with the face of a human.

A human about to die.

The shot knocked her back, maybe a foot, it seemed like more at the time. time seemed to slow down. Time enough for the rest to turn and see her get hit, lean over back wards…

And fall.

If she had only hit the water… she was so close to it… but closer to the cement bridge support. We all thought we heard the sound her head made when it hit. The sight of her bouncing forward just a few feet, into the waters open arms.

Mako was the first to react. He dove in after her. And managed to pull her to the surface. There was so much blood. So much. So very much…


	3. Grasping at threads… and Sanity

CH2

"Grasping at threads… and Sanity"

But what happened next? I don't remember…

Damn it!

There is so much I should remember but I don't. I can't!

I wont? Where did that thought come from? Again, another question with out an answer. I think I should be used to them by now. All those hours searching and coming up with inconstancies. Never failed to amaze every one.

How could someone, who s supposed to be so smart, loose so much information? And how could the people that helped not remember? That bother's me.

"What happened to my files?"

"Huh?"

"All my files on the computer, their gone. Did some one move or delete them?"

"No Rip, you're the only one who touches them."

"Ok, what about the hard copy files? Those are gone too."

"Are you sure you had any? I didn't even know we _had_ a filing cabinet."

"Yeah we do, it's right over there…" but where Ripster points there isn't anything.

"Hey, don't glare at us like that. You're the one with the high IQ and near perfect scores on the SAT. You figure out what you did with them."

"Or figure out if you ever had them."

"That's not funny."

"Rip I think your way too tens. Try relaxing a bit. Maybe you should find yourself a significant other. Hell… even a f-"

"Don't even go there. I do not like your little buddy idea."

"Come on, there are ton's of girls and woman that want to get jiggy with you. But then again, it is you. You never were one to date much."

"Why are we talking about sex? I need those files. Does anyone know where they are?"

"Ripster, there were no files. No files, no filing cabinet, and that's all. Chill."

Rip lets loose a growl as he swings at the wall. Leaving a fist sized imprint in it, then walks away.

Now that I think back on that, that wasn't the wisest choice to make. Every one started watching me like a hawk. Any files I had on leads that were odd, like the attack on us, were gone. _Even the medical files_. Funny thing is… after we healed no one mentioned anything about it.

Nothing.

As if it never happened. But I have a faint scar, so I know it happened. I sort-of remember it.  The maniacal shark-thing, it radiated evil. And he loved to torcher people, mainly with hallucinogens. That would explain why she shot me. But… she was so calm about it… the way some cops are fine shooting riot shots into a crowd. If that hit us we would be fine, a few bruises qualifies as fine.

Maybe that was it. Maybe she thought she had riot shot in her gun. And when she saw that it wasn't, she must have run.

But I still don't know who 'she' is. Bugger. Hmm… when did I pick up saying that? FSU I think. The hybrid used to say that, I think. Maybe the 'girl' as well. Were they the same?

Yeah right. One was human, that much I remember. The hybrid was well… a hybrid. Human and manta ray. She could fly. Though… memories seem to be triggered by the same things. Motorcycles, fear of deep water, the word bugger, both vanishing with out a trace.

Hmm…

Well… I tried talking to every one about my 'theories' but… but they wouldn't listen. Or they would try to change the subject. _That_ I remember, painfully so.

"Rip, you have got to stop doing this to your self." Benz says at Ripster for what seems like the millionth time to him.

"Doing what?" R

"Doing tons of research for nothing, and we all know you find nothing. Then you clame to find something, and when you go to show us. It has mysteriously disappeared. Or the person is out of town." B

"It's true." R

"Maybe you should seek help. General Thomson recommended a good shrink-" B

"A general? Why the hell would a general have any idea about me? About what I do at home?" 

"Answer me Benz."

"Benz?"

I still can't believe it. To this day I will never forget what happened. The look of shock and betrayal must have been clearly written on my face. He looked like he wanted to crawl in a hole and die.

I almost wanted him to.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Authors Note:

This story is written for those that know about Street Sharks. Which is really mean and nasty to everyone that doesn't know about them. When I get the next chapter done I will have a link to my website. It will have bios and pic's of the characters. Sorry.

Btw, the story isn't supposed to make much sense at the moment. It's that whole going insane thing. ^_^


	4. finding the Wall

CH3

"finding the Wall"

He's one of them.

I can't believe it. After all this time. We never knew.

"You aren't supposed to learn any of that. Ever."

"Why?"

"Don't kid your self Rip, you didn't fi-"

"Bullshit! You just admitted that I found stuff and now you deny it! Whose side are you on!" Ripster yells.

"Hey calm down!" Benz says as he takes a step back.

"No, you tell me why you've been doing this! Any progress I make you debunk! Anything that I have evidence of vanishes.  What is so important that you have to hide, help them hide, that could be so dangerous? Is this what happened? So long ago?"

"None of this was supposed to happen."

"Are you even my friend?"

"That hurt. I never wanted anything bad to happen. I had/have no choice."

"There's always a choice. That girl, is she the key to this?"

"If you keep doing this your going to loose it. Even more than you already have."

"Answer the question."

"I don't know the answer. No one does. She doesn't exist. But…"

"But?"

"But we saw her shoot you. She taught Slamu to cook and other than that there is no record of her. No one knows her name."

"Fine then, what happened to Mako? Where does he fit into this? And what happened to his sister?"

Benz sighs. "I don't know."

"Not good enough." Ripster starts to leave.

"He was like you Rip."

That stops him.

"He was searching for his sister and that girl. Hoping one would lead to the other. He never found anything. Nothing." B

"What about Reeni? What happened to her diary and that photo?" R

"She… I don't know. They said that she never had it, that she made the whole thing up. What photo?" B

"_The_ photo. The one that has us all and a whole lot of other people from our graduating class, at some docks. Do you remember what we did that summer? The year we left FSHS? I doubt it, no one else does." R

"Rip, you have to stop this, if you're not careful..." B

"If I'm not careful what?" R

"… If your not careful you could go insane like Reeni and Mako." B

"What?!" R

"I'm not sure what they were doing, but it was very close to what you are looking into. I don't know what happened to them or where they are… but if you keep this up, _you_ will find out. And then nothing can help you." B

Ripster puts his head in his hands, still standing with his back to Benz.

"I don't know if this will help you or hurt you, but… but Reeni and Mako both hinted at something thing being done to us. All of us. That summer. I never looked into it, I didn't want to." Benz says as he sits down. Benz never was all that brave.

"And that girl was there that summer."

"Yes, that's what they believe. It sounds right, but I don't know." Benz sits down. "I don't want to end up like them." B

"Who did you say could help me?"

"General Thomson, but he said he could help them also. As much as I tell him and, I guess, work for him. I don't trust him." B

"How much about me did you tell him?"

"Not a lot, but I think he suspects something is wrong with one of the Street Sharks. But he doesn't know _who_, he just told me to tell anyone that needed or wanted help, that he would do it. I think I really messed up."

"Yes you did." Ripster says as he turns around to see Benz curl up in the chair. "Is Leena a part of this? I haven't seen her since before we 'defeated' Paradime." Benz curls up further.

"I don't know what happened to her."

"Neither do we." said Streex's voice, coming from the door.

Turning sharply, both Ripster and Benz stair in shock at the others. All of them; Jabs, Streex, Slamu, Mobey, Rox, and Mantaman. They were all standing in and around the doorway. Looking in and watching, listening.

"We heard you both… talking." Streex says with a shrug.

"How much?" this from a horrified Benz.

"All of it. We didn't know a lot of what you two were talking about. But some of the stuff we did. Like Leena. We can't find anything on or about her. Nothing." Streex says.

"It's like she never existed." Mobey

"Even her colleegs didn't know what happened to her. Some didn't even know who she was. And I'm not talking vague acquaintances. Her faïence didn't know." Mantaman

"We… we wanted to tell you both sooner. But when we saw what was happening to Rip, we well..." Jabs let's the rest of his sentence just hang in the air, hoping one of the others will ck it up.

"We hid our information. Not yours though Ripster. Yours was gone before we started." Rox says as he leads every one out to the main room.

"But, if you all have been working on this, how come I didn't know about it?" Benz

"Because you were so wrapped up about Ripster. That made things easier for us."

"And how come you're not loosing it like I am?"

"Because we didn't push it. Whenever we got to close to something, it was strange… I can't describe it. But when that would happen one of us that person would stop. Leave a note for someone else with where he left off and that was it." Mobey

"We spread out the info. So that what ever was deciding that 'we knew enough' we could have the other pick up on it. We have a nice numbered system, but we all too afraid t look at it as a whole." Mantaman

"And I'm loosing it because I did all the searching my self. Thus pushing that barrier of sorts. Do you think that 'barrier' is what causes our loss of memories?"

And it was.  We all came to that conclusion. They decided to share all their information. Benz figured that since there was no one to debunk anything that we should be able to discuss it. And was there a lot of information.

And it all pointed to that one summer.

What it boiled down to was a theory.

1)         Fusion City is the only city that was ever concerned with fusions of man and animal. There were never any reports of someone not from here being part of it. we thought Mantaman, but then he told us that his family was original from here.

2)         Guy in the sky had absolutely nothing important to do with this. End story.

3)         About 24 or 25 years ago there was a massive disease scare. Everyone had tons of shots. Some of us remember our parents saying it was like being a kid in the 50's – 60's again. That and only kids born in the year 1980-84 had the shot. That was all. And if they had any siblings they also had the shots.

But it was only for those born in the area.

4)         The girl everyone remembers but doesn't might be a key to this. She must know something. So we have/had to find her.

 5)        Find Hybrid, get more answers.

6)         All problems' seem to happen with or around General Thomson.

So… that was our layout. To find out what happened to Leena, Reeni and Mako, we would have to go to the top of the food chain. And the best way to get there was me. Ripster. The insane one.

Brilliant plan, don't you think?


	5. the Cheese looks for the Mouse

CH4

"the Cheese looks for the Mouse"

No one and I mean _no one_ thought it was a good plan. Walk in, act like my insane self, ask/demand an explanation, and hope to dear god that I could get the hell out of there.

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Even possible.

But that was what _I_ thought.

"If I didn't already know you were insane I'd think so now." Jabs

"It'll work."

"Rip, we can't even get any info with out letting the General know what we're up to." Benz

"Yes we can."

"Ok. So Mr. John F. Nash, how do we get top secret government files, with out using our government connections?"

"Stegs."

"Stegs?" Mantaman

"Stegs?!" every one else.

"Well, I'll be a rat nosed monkey." Rox says as the others crack up at his remark.

Yup, our trump card. Stegs was part of the Dinos. A group of intergalactic dinosaurs that had chased some bad guys from their planet to ours. We first met them during the winter. It was funny. They _really_ don't like the cold.

At any rate, being that they were from another planet and all, and at the time they were actual aliens and all… they needed some way to gather information. So Stegs, being the super intelligent one and all, started writing programs to get past the firewalls and into the US governments files. He found that even though some of the computers weren't on the internet, they were networked with ones that _were_. So he just worked from there.

We just had to hope he would believe us and help us out. It didn't seem like we were asking a lot from him. Go in, look up a few things, and see if every thing was a lie and then leave the system. Easy.

Wrong, not easy.

It never happened, it didn't _need_ to happen. Everything was already there. Down to the floor plans. Alls he really needed was to get the new guard schedule and a few other things and we'd be ready to go. Because you see…

Someone beat us to the punch.

Not just beat us to the punch, but had gotten in and spoken with General Thomson as well. Can you say damn?

"What?!" said all the Street Sharks and Benz.

"uhmm… could you please choose another word. You've all said that way more than I'd like. Typical of the others to ditch me..." Stegs said. He really didn't like being surrounded by 5 sharks, a manta ray and one freaked out Benz.

"Could you please say that again... I really don't think I heard you right."

"Shard already beat you to the punch. She had me gather all the same information. a little less, but the same. She was very paranoid when she was here. And very grim."

"Where did she get a name like that? A comic book?"

"Shards of a broken mind. That was what she said. It makes sense in a sick manic-depressed sort of way. She was worse then Ripster."

"How so?"

"See, what they did was introduce the fusion to you all slowly. Probably since you were kids. I'm not sure how. But because Shard was a born and raised in another part of the country, her system wasn't able to handle the change as it would have had she been born and raised in Fusion City.

            It never took a solid hold.

She could change between her finned form, and her human form.  Never got the specifics, but I think it could have killed her. That much stress on her system, but I think she got help some how. Probably wasn't by choice. And why are you all looking at me like that?" Stegs starts to back into a corner, slowly.

"Her name is Shard? How did she know to go to you? Where is she now? When did she do all of this?"

"Ok… let me do this one at a time and sitting down, ok?"

"Fine."

It turned out that Shard has been around for about the same time as us but she, wisely, stayed in the background. Apparently no one knew about her. And she did her best to keep it that way.

            By the way, she's not even sure about the whole 'slow introduction' thing. She said she was making an educated guess based on collage records. I understand that as much as you do.

So… she can switch from having a massive fin-like thing similar to Mantmans, but with out the whole face thing. And she has a bit of a blue tinge to her skin. Her hair is a dark black/blue and there are dark blue stripes on her back. 

And in her 'human' form she just looses the fin. Has dark black/blue hair.

And yes she wears clothing. A mask on the lower part of her face, black leather pant's with a little hole in the left knee, boots, and a beat to hell leather jacket that has seen better days.

She didn't really give Stegs as much info as we had thought. Just the random things I mentioned and that if she didn't come back she was either ok or dead but most likely dead. Now that I think of it, she sounded like me at the time. Oh well.

"So… you still insist on going thru with this?"

"Yes."

"If you do, you'll end up dead just like Shard." Mako says in a non-chalant sort of way.

Did I forget to mention that we found out Mako was alive?


	6. Revelations, insert random bible quote h...

CH5

Revelations, insert random bible quote here

"Your alive?" Benz

"Better yet, your sane?" Streexs

"Yes and yes. Surprise." he says before taking a seat on the ground. "I've been hiding out here. Shard convinced me to stay here and partake the Dino's hospitality."

"She beat the crap out'a ya?" Slam

"No, but she threatened to and that was good enough for me. Any how…do you want to know I know or not?"

"Shoot"

"Well… shortly after our little incident of Ripster shooting Shard out of the sky with a high powered rifle, I got a phone call from a seemingly random caller. Turns out the 'random caller' knew where to find Reeni and Lena. Don't get your hopes up. Reeni is completely and utterly out of her mind. She kept muttering something about a bad lady that was stalking a fuzzy shark, a ghost from the dead, tentacle beast of death, an impaled eel thing and lastly a fish afraid of the water in a sea of trouble. At least I think that was all of it."

"Ok…" Rip

"A fuzzy shark?" Jabs

"The tentacle beast sounds like it could be Cuthuhlu." Streex

"But none of that makes any sense." Slam

"Think about the last part." Mako

"But Shard wasn't afraid of water, was she?" Manta

"I think she was. But I also think she under estimated how much trouble getting at the truth was. Seeing as she died finding out." Mako

"But wouldn't that be in the past tense then? How did she die?"

"::sigh:: She got in, got caught going thru Thompsons files and talked to thompson. The way it sounded, it seemed like she just might be able to walk out of there. But that wasn't the case. We couldn't really hear what he was saying to her, but it sounded like he was offending her in some way.

Just to let you know the original idea was for her to walk out of there in one of their uniforms. Apparently they didn't check ID if you were leaving. I'm assuming they have since updated this. Not that you could do that anyhow.

So… her plan got scraped, he called guards, she ran like hell. And the ever-intelligent guards not only shot her but also sent a heat-seeking missile after her. Which kinda makes sense since she ran down a tunnel near the boiler room."

"But." Jabs

"But they miss gauged her running speed. We think they were trying to cut her off. They hit the boiler room as she ran next to it instead. I found out that Stegs slipped a life monitor on her before she left. There was no signal when we lost contact.

So… after that I kinda lost it… I started looking for her. But I called her my sister. Reeni is my sister. But she had disappeared about when this started to happen. I think what ever they gave every one and I do mean every one, messed up Reeni's medication."

"What medication? We didn't know that there was something wrong with her."

"She had some weird but common brain ailment. I'm quoting my parents on this. It was like Attention Deficit Disorder but not. it was more complicated and with ADD you don't have seizures. It was never really that bad. I'm not sure what made it worse, but it didn't just suddenly get worse on it's own. That was the only good thing about her disease. It reached a certain point then stopped. Hers stopped when she was 13. She went insane when she was 21."

"Wouldn't that be the year we changed? That was 3 years ago… I thought it was longer."

"The media makes time go faster I think. They change their minds and make you think that the good guys are bad then good again in a matter of months. I think it's a bit disturbing."

"And Lena?"

"Lena became a missing person. They erased all traces of her. I don't know if she was supposed to just be here for a bit and then leave, or if she got to close to the truth. Whatever that truth might be. I could swear it was her that I talked to on the phone. But I don't know any more. Nothing seems to be what it is."

"That helps, so, the truth is out there and we have yet to see Scully."

"Then let's make the most of it, do you have a print out of the map?"

And so we worked and toiled and argued about which insane rout was the sanest. We didn't make a lot of sense, but the again we were knowingly repeating history. Learning that people like to blow things up is only useful to the point of letting us know Not to carry explosives. Which I had on me anyhow. ^_^

Anyhow… one headset, random sticky explosives(incase I need a diversion) and a lot of luck. Then I'm off on my way to grandmas house fully knowing that there is a wolf waiting for me.

Allow me to sum up my encounter…

I was walked in; I sat down in the general's office to wait for him. I go and investigate his desk, re-laying anything of interest to my brother's and Co. 

When, dot, dot, dot.

"So, you must be the infamous Brian Bolton aka Ripster, leader of the Street Sharks. It's an honor to finally meet you."

"…damn."

And that's how I got here. Lucky me.


	7. “It’s just a jump to the left”

CH6

"It's just a jump to the left..."

I bet now your expecting me to go on about how he, Thompson, beat me senseless trying to get useless information about things he already knew about and then sentenced me to a slow death by being eaten alive by vicious man-eating 3 foot long worms.

Please note the sarcasm as it drips from my voice.

Sorry, being beaten by vicious thugs and being injected with various drugs, all while hearing how Thompson plans to turn my family against themselves doesn't do much for my out look on life.

So… what was it he talked about while I lay on the ground twitching in a pool of my own blood? Well… basically every thing we thought we knew was wrong. that much he stated at the beginning. Which means we're all back at square one.

That is… if I some how manage to leave here alive.

And seeing as they have _every thing_ planed out for one insane shark, that idea isn't looking too good.

Arg… what _do_ they keep giving me..? Maybe one of the overly intelligent tech guys will tell me. Then again, maybe one of them will let me go.

"Hey what was that noise?" tech guy #1 says.

"Don't know… should we check it out?" tech guy #2

"Can't hurt. Twinkle toes in there has enough drugs in him to put out a rhino. I wonder what they do to sharks?" #1

"Heheh… don't you mean twinkle-fins? OW! Hey! What was that for?" #2

"No bad puns on this shift Bruno." #1

Then again… I could get lucky. Let's see… If I shake my wrists slightly, the manacles trigger something that injects more drugs into me via an IV.

But…

They don't do anything while I'm being beaten. If I'm lucky they have sensors that respond to just the little movements. That or Thompson was really cheap. His helpers don't seem like the type to push a little button or flip a switch just so they can beat up a helpless shark.

They might forget and thus give the poor little helpless shark an overdose.

I'm not digging for sympathy from you, my imaginary friends. That might chase you all away.

All right… one good well placed but not well-balanced jerk of the wrists should work. I hope, or else it's fun time with more drugs… Ick. So…

One…

Two…

***Click***

Click? I look and my now free arms, though they're a little blurry. That was too easy… next you'll be telling me that that's my gear right over there on the counter.

I walk over and, guess what? Low and behold… it's my gear on the counter. Which isn't that much… Just a head set some sticky explosive things and detonators. I'm shocked they left that here.

            Too easy.

Way too easy.

Trap easy.

But… if this is a trap then the guards should be conveniently knocked out… let's test this theory. I put on my headset and start to move to the door.

~Rip?~

Yes I did just jump two feet into the air.

"Don't do that!" I hiss in to my mic.

~Oops…sorry. I wasn't sure it was you. How did you get out anyhow? The last transmission we got from you was you saying damn. Care to enlighten us?~

"Yes I got caught, no I didn't say anything, they gave me a lot of drugs but if I made a sound I was hurt. Badly. I think I have a migraine to go with my concussion."

~Ok… then how did you get out of your cell?~

"I didn't. I'm still in it. I was about to leave but-"

~But?~

"But my guards just walked in the room. Just a sec."

And boy are they surprised. They just stood there. Jaw on the ground shock. I knocked them out with Jabs favored method, two quick punches to the face. That'll leave a mark.

"Ok, back. By the way tell Jabs I have a new respect for his knock out method."

~Heheh~

"So, which way?"

~Left. Are you sure your alright?~

"Yes, isn't this the way Shard took?"

~Unfortunately yes, want us to find you a different path? It might take you by more guards.~

"Na, let's wing it this way."

~Your insane.~

"I know."

So… after getting lost twice, knocking out some more guards and blowing a six-foot hole in a random wall (I'm kidding) I finally find the little purple sticker on the map. other wise known as the place that went boom. or, in lamans terms, where Shard died.

"So now what?"

"Now you die."

I intelligently say huh? as I turn around to see, in a still druggy haze, something coming at me that looks pain full. I run. I hear a weird sound.

Cue blackness of doom.


	8. the End?

**_the end?_**

****

~*~**time passes***~

Dust clears, showing our now wounded hero lying in what will soon be a pool of his own blood; unless he wakes up and binds his wounds that is. The tunnel that he was blasted thru is now blocked by a mass of rubble that conveniently blocks his escape. Not that he wants to go that way. In front of where he will be going is a dimly lit corridor/tunnel type thing. Think Half-life, after the explosion but with out the nasty tick-bug things that take over your body.

As if that wasn't enough, a small cascade of pebbles and some dust brush past said heroes nose causing him to stir.

"_Took you long enough to wake up_."

"Hnn..? What happened?"

"_Thomson sent a heat seeking missal at you, big surprise. But being a heat seeking missal and all, it veered off to the left of you to a greater heat source, a heat source, formally known as a welding torch next to a boiler room. Pity, it was a nice torch. It was going to get you out of that cell after all._"

"uhg… my head hurts."

"_You always were good at stating the blatantly obvious. You might want to wrap something around that by the way, and you might want to put this on. As nice as it might be, the sweater will help you blend into the shadows better. And sorta stop you from leaving a blood drop trail. Bleeding to death would put a massive damper on your social life._"

"Not that I have one." he pulls on a rather large black sweater and in doing so sees the world spin.

"_True_"

"Your nice." he says in her direction, keeping his eyes closed so the world doesn't spin quite as much.

"_So?_"

"hmph"

"_By the way, did I mention that he, he being an evil scientist type, is going to search for you? I'm going to suggest you make haste. NOW._"

"Uh-hu… right. And I'm supposed to believe you because…?"

"_heh_"

"Fine I'm getting u-… wait…"

For the first time since the conversation started, he looks at her. The dark black/blue hair, the mask on the lower part of her face, black leather pant's with a little hole in the left knee, the boots, the beat to hell leather jacket that has seen better days… and the bullet holes in the jacket that pulls every thing together.

"Your dead."

"_Like I said, master of the obvious. Now, let's get going. Or else you'll be joining me._"

"… That's good enough for me. But I still don't know why I should trust you. You are, after all, dead. Then again I'm supposed to be insane."

"_You don't sound insane to me, but then again you are having a conversation with a dead person._"

"Your not helping, no don't answer that. Ok let's see… headset is shot, I'm bleeding a lot and my head hurts.  Not overly scientific but I'm not in the mood. By the way, how can I be having a conversation with you? I don't even really remember you."

"_Suspension of disbelief._"

"?" Yeah, he was pretty sure she could hear the question mark that he thought at her.

"_It's a D&D thing. You roll a dice and if you pass it you can disbelieve something that happened. Or, say, have a conversation with a dead girl. Whether or not it's real doesn't matter. At least, not to the person that made the check or roll. So… in this case you disbelieve the fact that you can't talk to me. That or you hit your head a lot hard than we think._"

"…"

"_Get over it. Now move._"

~*~**more** **time passes**~*~

"By the way, who exactly are you?" when I said that, she just stared at me.

"_You really don't remember_ "

"No, I did some digging and found somethings that pointed to another person being with us for a while."

"_And…?_"

"And then I tried to find out how the hell that happened and thus became insane. Thanks to all sorts of half memories, memories that you probably triggered."

"_If I did I didn't mean to. It wasn't supposed to happen. Either you knew or you didn't. If I had known you would have driven your self over the edge I would have told you right then and there. But… it didn't seem wise. But then again I was jumping at shadows and the like._"

"That still doesn't tell me why you shot me."

"_You still haven't told me._"

"Touché."

~*~**even more time passes**~*~

_"Question_"

"Answer"

_"Brat, any how… what on earth made you think that taking the same _failed_ escape rout as me would work for you?_"__

"I didn't think. I just went with it. It seemed like a good idea at the time." he says as he stops briefly to rub his still aching head.

_"You seem to be taking this whole 'talking-to-a-sublevel-of-your-mind' thing really well._"__

 "I got used to talking to myself while I was caged up. Because after about oh... I don't know about 24 hours in a messed up solitary confinement type thing that if you say anything out loud it gets you beaten bloody, you find out that having a conversation in your head with yourself or other people you made up is, in a way, sane."

"Will you stop staring at me like that."

_"Are you sure you are insane. Because that seamed extremely logical_."

"I'm positive that I'm insane."

_"I also heard that if you think your insane your really not. But if you think your sane you get locked up_. _Maybe your just slightly wacky._"

"You are not helping."

_"Am I supposed to? I'm your imaginary friend. And stop grumbling._"

"Which brings me back to the whole I-see-dead-people thing."

_"Your lucky I can't smack you._" She says with a glare.__

"Try it. I'm wearing a sweeter that _You_ provided for me. You haven't said anything useful. Am I the only one that sees something wrong with a illusion trying to talk sense into their insane creator?"

_"I told you it's su-_"

"Suspension of disbelief. Yeah, yeah… and the whole sense talking thing?"

_"You don't want me to make fun of you or hurt you. you want to be re-assured that you are not completely loosing it. Which in a sense negates it if you want it to. As for the not being useful part of your rant, maybe you just haven't asked the right question._"

He stops and glares at her. "I hate you."

_"Heh. Now quit moping and keep moving. You said it was the next left?_"

"The next right, question-"

_"Answer_"

"Brat. Ok, why has it been so easy to walk thru here? The lighting is even _almost_ normal."

_"Well… seeing as you were able to run down here in the first place, I'm guessing that they cleaned it up a bit. It wasn't finished when I was alive._"

"They did this little work in a year? I mean look, you can still see where something blasted thru this wall. Because if I was a bad guy I wouldn't just leave little traces of a previous nasty visit this visible."

That seems to catch her off guard. She stops and looks at the wall while putting her hand against it, as if in remembrance.

_"That is odd._"

"Are you thinking trap?"

She looks off to the side in thought. A thought thinking. Weird.

_"I am going to suggest running like hell and hoping to dear god that this is all paranoia_."

"And if it's not…?"

            _"then-"_

~*~**change of scene**~*~

"And then what happened Rip?" Benz says as he hands me a nice warm mug of hot coco, the kind with the little marshmallows in it.

"Then boom."

"Boom?"

"Boom."

"Uh... That's it?"

"Well I think it was a trap. They must have had bombs planted around us, enough to force us through the wall. Then when we hit the water, nice of him to have a cliff-side base by the way; she kept me afloat and then took me to a safe place on shore some miles down from where we landed in the water. And finally rigging my headset to send you a signal to hopefully come get me. All the while waiting with my unconscious form to make sure I didn't bleed to death first. Which is all very polite of my subconscious mind.

Which of course means that have to believe that I was blown thru the wall, out over the cliff and into the freezing cold ocean. I then some how swam to shore and got a signal to you. Of course doing that when I'm unconscious."

I look at their stunned faces. Heheh, it's funny watching people try to come up with an answer to a question like that. I'm going to have fun being insane.

"Hey Rip…"

"Yes?"

"If it was your subconscious mind that gave you the sweater. Then how come I can hold it and feel it? Not to mention get it washed and then throw it at you like this."

It was my turn to be shocked as the now clean sweater hit me full in the face, curticy of one Jabs.

"That's what I thought." He says in his smug mater-of-fact way that only Jabs can do.

"But…"

"But maybe you're not as crazy as we thought."

"hmph, just when I'm starting to enjoy it"

Well... We still have no idea what's going on. We think Shard is alive and hiding. That or I'm a damn lucky bastard. That and I'm not as insane as everyone, including my self, thought. Again we don't know what caused it or if it will happen again. Fun don't you think?

As for Mako's mysterious re-appearance, we really don't have anything to say about that. It's good that he's back. It's bad hearing about his Real sister. Streex is going to look into that later on. He thinks something is up and wants to know more about her 'vision'. Which is all well and good seeing as it makes as much sense as everything else that has happened so far.

So we're back at the beginning, but this time we have a few leads. There seems to be a lot of action in the Bay Area lately. We're hoping more information will pop up. Preferably Gen. Thompson giving up and telling us everything he knows. Too bad we're not that lucky.


End file.
